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The Trouble with Defectors
What informants taught an intelligence officer
Ritter, Scott http://harpers.org/archive/2017/01/the-trouble-with-defectors/
Publisher: Harper's Magazine
Year Published: 2017
Resource Type: Article
Author and former U.S. Intelligence Officer Scott Ritter writes about his experiences working with informants and defectors. Recounting first hand experiences he discusses the problems and issues working with informants, notably their motivation, quality of information, and its reliabitlity and currency. While quality control is a recurring problem with informants Ritter further discusses why intelligence professionals still keep using them.
Abstract:
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Excerpt: Amiri returned to Iran in July 2010 and was initially feted as a hero. But he soon found himself in deep trouble. Within months, he was arrested and charged with treason. Despite Iranian media reports that Amiri was a double agent, interrogators there soon reached a different conclusion: he had been a willing asset of the CIA. "The Amiri case," Paul Pillar, a former CIA officer, has observed, "seems to be a story out of the wilderness of mirrors department."
More than five years passed before Amiri was put to death. While the evolution of his loyalties remains unknown, American intelligence officers have to assume that the CIA's knowledge and strategy were compromised. And the fact that Amiri's family is still alive means that he likely cut a deal. The trouble with defectors is that if they seem too good to be true, they probably are.
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